Warren: Kavanaugh would crush women with Roe v. Wade loss

Credit: Jim Michaud

Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks during Rise Up for Roe Tour, Monday, August 13, 2018, at the Royale in Boston. Herald Photo by Jim Michaud

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren last night predicted that President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee will overturn Roe v. Wade and criminalize abortion if confirmed by the Senate.

If Roe v. Wade is overturned, Warren said, “It will mean wealthy women will still get abortions. … And it will be hardworking women who will get crushed under a change in the law.”

Her remarks came at a forum at the Royale in Boston, where abortion-rights activists called Judge Brett Kavanaugh a dangerous threat to the right to safe, legal abortion.

Speaking as part of a 10-city, 14-day “Rise Up for Roe” national tour to rally opposition to Kavanaugh’s nomination, Warren cited polling that shows 70 percent of Americans support abortion rights. She also cited Trump’s remark in a campaign interview that woman should face “some form of punishment” for abortion — a remark his campaign later attempted to walk back.

She also said that when Trump nominated Kavanaugh, a U.S. Court of Appeals judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, the name had come to him from a list that had been “pre-screened” by abortion foes.

City Councilor At-Large Ayanna Pressley, who is running for Congress against incumbent Michael E. Capuano, a fellow Democrat, called abortion a medical procedure and a right.

“It is surreal that we are even having this discussion,” Pressley said. “These decisions are being made by a bunch of men.”

Wendy Robinson was 17 in 1961, when abortion was still illegal, when she found out she was pregnant.

Her parents found the name of a doctor, whose office she left after he put his hand on her knee, Robinson said. Her younger sister’s guitar teacher eventually referred her to another doctor, who performed the procedure but told her abortion was the wages of sin and threatened to turn her away if she made a sound, she said.

“My story’s not as horrific as many other women’s,” Robinson said. “But nobody should have to depend on luck to get a safe abortion.”

The “Rise Up for Roe” tour, which kicked off Saturday and runs through Aug. 24, is hosted by the Demand Justice Initiative, NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.